A Song Of Spring And Summer Summer

Spring, summer and even early autumn flowers make my heart sing. A bad day can always be made better with a bouquet of flowers, (fortunately my husband knows this about me).

I've been trying to transfer my obsession with flowers to my glaze paintings on porcelain. These earring feature my freehand glaze paintings, along with beautiful lampwork glass by Susan Kennedy of SueBeads. The Song Of Spring earrings are available on my website.

In mid- August a friend and I are taking a Zoom class on painting watercolor flowers.  I'm looking forward to seeing how I can apply what I learn to my work in clay. Have you taken any online classes during your pandemic isolation?

Linda Landig Jewelry

Cork Fabric And Ceramic

I've been curious about cork fabric ever since Lisa Peters Russ started carrying it on her website and since Heather Powers did a tutorial with it last week. Specifically, I wanted to see how it would look with my ceramic jewelry components.

So what is cork fabric? Cork fabric, often referred to as an ethical alternative to leather, is made with a thin layer of cork that is permanently bonded to fabric. No trees are cut down or harmed, so it is a sustainable product. It is strong, durable and flexible. You can even sew purses out of it! It is easier to cut than leather and it comes in many colors and designs. There are tons of beautiful patterns, but I wanted to start with solid color sheets as a background layer for my ceramic pieces.

I thought these rounded teardrop shapes would pair well with my yellow and blue ceramic earring charms and some silver spacer accents. What do you think? I have lots of ideas percolating in my head now, for more cork fabric jewelry. It's a welcome emotional boost to have something new to create with while we all shelter in place. I think I'm onto something fun!

Linda Landig Jewelry

New Shoots

A very happy 2020 to all our readers! The world seems in a difficult place at the moment, so let's hope for some better times ahead.

When I'm worried about things it always helps to take myself off to my corner and make something - avoid the news, and concentrate on colour, shape and form, to the exclusion of all else.  This weeks earrings are a sign of hope - the days are becoming longer, it's not too cold, buds are already appearing on my favourite clematis, and those daffodil and crocus shoots are pushing through the soil, even though its only January.

 

Blue and copper are a perennial favourite combination, and of course, Classic Blue is  Pantone Colour of 2020, so you can expect to see lots of it. It's cooling and calming - something we need plenty of, at the moment.  The lovely rustic ceramic buds are by Nitta Elomaki; the etched lampwork beads by Karin Hruza, the beads dumortierite, one of my favourite gemstones for its range of blues that morph to rusty brown, and that matte finish. Peeping out of the buds are 'stamens' made from Faerystones copper ball end headpins with pretty blue rhinestone rondelles, because January still needs a bit of sparkle!

I shall endeavour to have these in my Etsy shop sometime today, and I'll see you again in two weeks.

                                                              Lindsay xx
                                                            
                                                            My Etsy shop

                                                        My Facebook page  

Disco 2020

This  week I've been a little obsessed by a TV advert, of all things. You know the one - it's for a brand of gin, scene set in a 60s/70s disco, the song that's playing is Franki Valli's The Night…………

but the night begins to turn your head around,
and you know you're gonna lose more than you found...…………

(carries on singing, dancing round the kitchen making mince pies)

And it's the dancers that hold my attention. Northern Soul, circa 1971, the year I got married. Tom and I had a few Saturday nights at the legendary Wigan Casino, standing to the side, watching the lads do those fabulous moves. And above us, twinkling away on its perpetual circuit...………..


                                                               The disco ball.  

There it is, in the centre of my earrings this week. Faceted glass, surrounded by textured ceramics by Nitta Elomaki and hung on Faerystones dark copper earwires.

Just ready for those New Years Eve parties. But before that, I wish you all a lovely Christmas season, peace and goodwill to all!

                                                                     Lindsay xx

                                                                My Etsy shop

                                                              My Facebook page

Broken

Hello Earring Lovers!

No new makes from me today I'm afraid, but I made these recently for a showcase, and they were probably my favourite pair. They feature beautiful rustic ceramic drops by Nitta of Corvus Ceramics. If you haven't checked out Nitta's work -go take a look at her beautiful work on Facebook. So clever the way she's stapled the pieces together, don't you think? Adds to their rustic, delicate appeal.

There was a slight sepia look about Nitta's drops, which I wanted to complement. I chose delicious citrine -probably my all time favourite semi-precious stone. Apparently, it improves self esteem, and energises and stimulates creativity. What's not to love, right? I added a brass connector at the back of the ceramic drops, and finished these pretties off with a little co-ordinating czech glass briolette.

They'll be in my shop soon. 

See you next month!

Sue

Purple or green?

Hello!

It's been a gorgeous Easter weekend here in the UK. Bright and beautiful. And speaking of bright and beautiful, I received my latest batch of goodies from Petra Carpreau recently! And these rather lovely connectors caught my eye straight away.

First off...purple. These connectors have a lovely long loop, which I wrapped with some oxidised copper wire and little seeds. I framed them with some small oxidised brass hoops and added some pretty amethyst beads.

The green ones were next... I kept the same elements of the design, but added some brass spacers and tiny czech glass. I love both colours -can't pick a favourite! What do you think? Purple or green?

They'll both be available over on The Jewellery Show on Facebook on Friday/Saturday. See you again soon!

Sue x 

Utterly Lovely Stuff

New ceramics

Hello! Here we are, half way through April already. I've been busy working on some new earrings for a showcase over on The Jewellery Show in Facebook Land at the end of the month. I was lucky enough to come across a fabulously talented ceramic artist called Nitta Elomaki of Corvus Ceramics. She makes beautifully delicate, rustic pieces and I've had great fun playing with some. Let me show you what I came up with.

First off, these pretty green glazed charms. Beautifully textured. I wanted some length  to these earrings -so, added some pretty chrysocolla rondelles, oxidised brass connectors with pretty little green seeds. A bit grungy. A bit elegant too.

Next up -these little textured moon charms. I love these! I added some delicious textured raku beads, stacked up with tiny little greek metal spacers peeking out between them. And some little brass oxidised hoops of course, for a bit of symmetry.

Go and check out Nikki's page on Facebook. These lovelies will be available at the end of the month on The Jewellery Show
See you in May :-)

Bold, Brown and Boho

Lately I've been making an effort to work through my mound of UFOs (Unfinished Objects). I have an embarrassing number of jewelry projects that I've never finished or pieces that I no longer like or which aren't in fashion anymore.  I'm determined to either finish them, rework them or cut them apart and use the beads for something else. Today I'm going to share a pair of earrings I made a long time ago, for Earrings Everyday, but which I never liked much.  In fact I never even listed them on my website, because I wasn't satisfied with them.  Here's the original version.

The dangly beads on the waxed linen always looked too bulky with the fat ceramic drops, and the waxed linen caused them to stick out awkwardly over the rounded drops. Also the drops have a beautiful glaze on them, which the beads pretty much covered up. The earrings look OK in the photo, but in real life - not so much.
Sooo...I cut them apart and tried a bunch of variations till I got what I liked. I love the colors of those little barbell shaped beads in combination with the ceramic drops, so I wanted to keep them. Here's what I came up with.

The new version was hard to photograph because the little dangles fall off to the side when the earrings are horizontal, but you can see how there are beautiful shades of caramel, chocolate and coffee in the glaze, (sounds like a restaurant menu!).  Here's how they hang when worn.

The mother of pearl hoops used to be part of a necklace that I also took apart and re-purposed. The earrings look so much more airy and uncluttered in their new form. Unlike the first version of these earrings, I have listed this remake in my shop.

Linda Landig Jewelry

Grungy Spring

So, it's now April! In the UK, our clocks have gone forward which means we lose an hour of sleep, but gain an hour of daytime. All very confusing! But upshot is, Spring is very much here. I spent the weekend in Norwich, a city in the east of the UK, collecting my oldest daughter from University and everywhere was bursting with spring flowers. Gorgeous.

Now, as I've been a lil busy driving around all weekend, I've had no time to create something new for this blog. But I thought I'd share these pretties from my last showcase on Friday. They feature some gorgeously grungy ceramic connectors by Petra Carpreau. They remind me of little lily-pads.

I decided to add some pretty green czech glass teardrops, and a little stack of Roman glass rondelles, framed by oxidised brass hoops. Love the shape and the textures of these. You really can't beat Petra for organic, quirky and grungy. So there you are. A bit of grungy Spring. Although I've just read that we are due for gales and snow in parts of the UK next week....so maybe Spring will be on pause here for a little while!

See you in a couple of weeks 

Sue

Utterly Lovely Stuff

Dark hearts

Blimey...where does the time go! I know it's the beginning of March and I should be making earrings inspired by Spring. Unfortunately, I've never been terribly good at doing "seasonal"...

So these gorgeous ceramic ball and heart drops are by Petra Carpreau and they are clearly much better suited to a February post and Valentine's Day...Sorry!

The hearts have a gorgeous deep red glaze, and grungy feel to them. I thought I'd dress up the connecting bits of wire with some pretty silver seed beads to match the silver ceramic ball.

 And, of course -there have to be hoops. Beautiful dark oxidised brass hoops to frame the ceramic pretties and add some extra swing.

So there we have it! Dark hearts. Nothing to do with Spring, but I hope you like them anyway. There'll be in my showcase at the end of this month, over on The Earrings Show.. 

See you in a couple of weeks :-)

Sue x

Dreamy ceramics

Hello earring people! I've been having a bit of a break from jewellery of late. I made so many new pieces for a showcase a couple of weeks ago, I was spent! I was happy to take out my tools and look through some recent purchases of components for today's blog.

Now, these ceramics are by Spanish artist Mari Carmen Rodrigez Martinez of Majoyoal. If you haven't seen her work before -go take a look. Her glazes are just beautiful. The pair I made for this blog are a beautiful pale green with lemon tones. 

I added some rustic African brass beads to accentuate the ethnic feel to these, and finished with some brass jump rings and spacers to highlight the pretty details on the ceramic charms. I like using jump rings for decoration, rather than just as a way of connecting things together                              

 Below is a pair I made for my last show with gorgeous pieces also by Mari Carmen -this time with beautiful blues and indigo. I used some aqua recycled glass chunks with these, pretty twisted jump rings and silver leaves.

Both pairs are in my shop.

Thanks for popping in! See you in a couple of weeks 

Sue x

In the Bleak Midwinter

A little bit previous this week, as it isn't really yet midwinter nor is it particularly bleak - more wet and windy up in the north of England. I have Christmas Carols on the brain though - our village Christmas tree lights are being switched on this weekend, I'm helping organise a Christmas Fair in our village hall on Sunday and next week we have our carol concert. But possibly my favourite event will be my next on line jewellery show, this time with a Christmas Carol theme.

My friend Helen Backhouse has recently begun adding ceramics to her repertoire of polymer clay and metal components. Just as you'd expect from her, organic in shape and beautifully glazed. As tester in chief, I made these, which I have named In the Bleak Midwinter.

They're textured using a stone I brought back from Greece this summer. Cool blues and steel grey, echoed by lampwork headpins from Linda Newnham and steely chain, with 'magic' glass beads above which would be happily at home on your Christmas tree. Lots of copper wire and earwires made by Lucy Haslam.

 

 

These will be included in our show in our Facebook group The Very Nice Group on 8th December. Do join us!  

I shall be back tomorrow to introduce Lucy Haslam, writing her first guest post. Hope you'll pop in and welcome her.

                                                                        Lindsay x

                                                                  My Facebook page

                                                                      My Etsy shop.

Moorish in Marrakech

Now you all know I've just come back from a lovely restful holiday in Greece, and I'm working hard on a bunch of sea themed pieces for a 'Poldark' on-line show this weekend. But to be honest, I'm a bit sick of sea themed......so for this weeks post I thought I'd take a break and revert to a trip to Marrakech some years ago. I've had these lovely Moorish style ceramic drops from Emma Ralph for a while, looking for the right shade of green to put with them. Last week I received a string of faceted green onyx from Sylvia Stungo's shop for another piece of work, and they are perfect.

Simply styled with pewter beadcaps, the onyx and lapis lazuli, I've wired them in bright blue enamelled wire (I'm a big fan) and added blue niobium earwires - they're named for the famous blue Majorelle Gardens in  Marrakech, designed by Yves St Laurent to be an oasis of cool in a hot, bustling yet wonderfully vibrant city. I made our meal tonight with a morroccan tagine from the souks I wrapped with great care and brought back in our hand luggage. Tastes so much better!

 

 

 

Anyhow, I popped these in my Etsy shop and now back to the sea stuff…and see you in a couple of weeks.

 

Lindsay xx

 

My Etsy shop

 

My Facebook business page

 

Ethereal Jewelry Designs

My earring designs usually are in strong colors, more in the jewel tone color vibe, but it is always wonderful to challenge one’s self with something new, such as components from Emma Wilson, from the United Kingdom. When I first saw Emma Wilson’s porcelain ceramic components I was blown away by the intricate markings and patterns on each piece. They were so delicate and detailed looking, but having an art degree in ceramics, I knew they would be very sturdy for jewelry components.

Emma’s porcelain components exude a sense of history, like they have been part of something else, maybe having been worn by someone in a gentler time or possibly that they have been places and have a story to tell and now they were just found and repurposed into these ornate bits and bobs. Emma’s pieces are frequently in tones of pale peach, blue and white, with gold ‘gilding’ in key areas. They are a delight to design with as I get to work with my smaller glass pieces and ornate headpins to enhance the story Emma has started.

Emma’s pieces can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/TheNatureofPorcelain , https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop//TheNatureofPorcelain, and on Facebook selling groups such as https://www.facebook.com/groups/LBAGalleriaDesignersShowcase/

Each porcelain piece in these photos range from 1.5 to 2.5 cms in length or about ½ to one inch. When  other artisan materials are added they are 2-3 inches long and are extremely light in weight on your ear.

The round medallion type earrings with dangling Swarovski crystals also feature Rose toned beadcaps and rustic lampwork glass by Jody Brimhall of Inspire Glass Studio at https://www.etsy.com/shop/InspireGlassStudio as well as on Facebook selling group pages such as: https://www.facebook.com/groups/lampworkbeadmarket

The pale blue bell shaped earrings feature lampwork glass beads from Patricia Ritchie of Australia, more Swarovski crystals and Silver Tinned Headpins by Sasha Crow.  Patricia’s work can be found on Facebook selling social media pages such as https://www.facebook.com/groups/lampworkbeadsfs/

Sasha Crow’s artisan pieces can be found at https://www.etsy.com/shop/crowscachesupplies

The smaller round components with small round impressions in the clay feature Terry Turner of Silverfish Designs at https://www.etsy.com/shop/Silverfishdesigns and Sasha Crow’s headpins.

For more information I can be found at: https:www.facebook.com/ChristineKaitlyn.3  and

https://www.Etsy.com/shop/ChrisKaitlynJewelry  or  http://ChrisKaitlynJewelry.IndieMade.com/

and on Instagram and Pinterest.

Chris Kaitlyn

 

Knotted Brass Earrings

I found these cool knotted antiqued brass components at Michaels.  They were part of a chain and they were interspersed with teardrop shaped links. I took the chain apart, so I could use the pieces separately. 

The earrings are super simple, but fun and unique for casual wear. I just linked the chain components to some green and brown ceramic leaves by Lesley Watt. As new spring leaves are in bud here, Lesley's leaf charms seemed perfect for the season.

These knotted brass earrings are available at Linda Landig Jewelry.

Linda Landig Jewelry

Holiday Ferris Wheel Earrings

I've had fun making, what I call, my Ferris Wheel ceramic components, in a variety of color combinations.  So I thought, "Why not see how they look in holiday colors?".

So I made one pair with a green background and one pair with a red background.  The green background pair sold at Bead Fest and the other pair became the earrings you see here.

Gold always feels festive during the holidays, so I paired the ceramic dangles with gold plated beads and some satin finish, red "o-beads".

I will have these for sale at a show I'm doing this weekend, but if they don't sell, I'll be adding them to my shop. Do you like to wear holiday themed jewelry or not so much.  Let me know in the comments.

Linda Landig Jewelry

What's wrong with this picture?

Can you see it?

Have you seen it yet?

I'll tell you anyway.
So I made the first earring on the left with 3 antiqued brass rings (top half).  When I went to make the second one I realised I didn't have a 3rd antiqued brass ring.  I searched everywhere, my desk, floor, all the rooms in my house (my beads are everywhere) to no avail.  I still wanted to finish the earrings and decided to use a raw brass ring for the second earring (on the right) in place of the 3rd antiqued ring.  I then undid the first earring and made it up again to match the second one.  I took photos yesterday...everything was perfect.
Later in the day as I began to edit the photos my eyes were drawn to the gold on the right one, I also noticed that there was no gold on the left earring.  I thought to myself "but I made that earring up again to match the second one"
Oops.  Apparently I've made up the same earring twice using the same 3 antiqued rings.  As you can imagine I called myself lots of names which I won't repeat here.  I could not bring myself to make the same earring for a 3rd time with the gold ring so for now they are staying like this. Ceramic connectors by the one and only Petra Carpreau

On a brighter note, I also made these - part of my industrial collection, a phase I am going through right now.  More about phases another time.

That's all for today.  I will be back in a couple of weeks time.  Have a lovely weekend.  

Suhana

My Etsy shop: Buttoned Up Beads

A new design.......

was born last week. 

I wanted to include a cluster of flowers and this is what I came up with.

Lampwork, druzy discs and Marc Chagall drops.

Vintage beads and Frida drops.

Lamwork, Roman glass discs and Goyo drops

Lampwork and Shimura drops.

Lamwork and Klimt Tears drops. 

All the decal drops are by the lovely Petra Carpreau

Sorry about the picture only post :D (I actually held back...there's more ;)).  The Klimt Tears pair is now available in my Etsy shop.  Hope you like them and have a fab weekend.

Suhana <3

My Etsy shop: Buttoned Up Beads